Americans nursed their optimism that better times were coming by making do as best they could under adverse conditions. As the decade ended, rumors of war in Europe and Asia took up more headline space than President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, and Americans soberly prepared for what many viewed as the country's inevitable entrance into the hostilities. Few would guess the impact the war would have on the country, pulling it out of its long economic crisis and making the United States the leading political and economic force in the world. Yet in the late 1930s Americans continued to focus on getting by, making do, or doing without. Many enjoyed their cars, their movies, and their new roads as they waited for better times.